Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) Draft Policy Open for Comment

On June 6, 2014, the FAA issued Technical Standard Order (TSO)-C127b, Rotorcraft, Transport Airplane, and Small Airplane Seating Systems, that included new requirements for non-TSO functions. Based on the non-TSO criteria in TSO-C127b, there is confusion on how to comply with TSO-C127b. The intent of this policy is to clarify how the non-TSO function (NTF) policy applies to TSO seating systems.

This policy statement describes acceptable compliance methods for replacing vacuum-driven attitude instruments with electronically-driven replacement indicators. Electronically-driven attitude indicators include indicators that use electrical power to (1) excite an internal gyro, or (2) replace the operation of the gyro with microelectronics. Electronically-driven attitude indicators may replace the existing attitude indicators used in VFR or IFR airplanes.